Upon the death of President Madero, he escaped from Mexico City and resisted Huerta's usurpation as part of the Constitutionalist Army commanded by Venustiano Carranza.

Named Secretary of War and Navy in 1920, Urquizo fought in the battles of Apizaco, Rinconada and Aljibes against the insurgents who threatened the trains in which the government withdrew from Mexico City to Veracruz.

In 1942, he became Undersecretary of Defense and began to promote the modernization of the Army, instituted the National Military Service, and formed the Motorized Brigade and Parachute Corps.

He conceived the creation of the 201st Squadron of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force, which fought alongside the Allies in the Pacific during the Second World War, and of which he formally took leave in Greenville, Texas, on February 23, 1945.

He served as Secretary of National Defense from 1 September 1945 to 30 November 1946 under President Manuel Ávila Camacho, and was commandant of the Mexican Legion of Honor from 1951 to 1953.